Entries in Economic Strategy
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Joe Raedle/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Vice President Joe Biden kicks off a two-day campaign swing through eastern Ohio on Wednesday, pushing a populist economic message -- dubbed “Obama economics” -- that he’ll use to draw sharp contrasts between the president and Mitt Romney.

The vice president also plans to offer his first direct, public scrutiny of Romney’s record at the private equity firm Bain Capital, according to excerpts of his first speech in Youngstown released by the Obama campaign.

He will recount the case of GST Steel -- the now defunct Kansas City, Mo., company that is also featured in the campaign’s latest TV ad, airing Wednesday in Ohio and four other states.

“He thinks that because he spent his career as a ‘businessman,’ he has the experience to run the economy,” Biden plans to tell a crowd at M7 Technologies, an advanced manufacturing facility. “So let’s take a look at a couple of things he did. He’s raised it. So let’s take a real hard look at it.”

GST Steel was acquired by Bain Capital in 1993, but went bankrupt in 2001 after being saddled with debt. Roughly 750 workers lost their jobs and retirement benefits, while executives and investors profited from investments. (Romney left Bain in 1999, but retained a stake in the company.)

“Romney made sure the wealthy played by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost. And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy?” Biden will say.

“Where I come from, past is prologue,” he will say. “So what do you think he’ll do as president?”

The Romney campaign has said GST was a single case and sought to highlight other positive examples of Bain investments, including the Indiana company Steel Dynamics, which continues to thrive.

Republicans also contend that Biden’s focus on Romney’s background in private equity is meant to be a distraction from the administration’s record on the economy, which is recovering sluggishly from recession.

Biden will claim credit for the recovery on the campaign trail, arguing in his remarks that the economy is “starting to come back.” But he focuses most of his attention on what he calls competing economic philosophies for the future.

“There’s Obama Economics, which values the role of workers in the success of a business, and values the middle class in the success of the economy,” Biden will say. “And then there’s Romney Economics, which says as long as the government helps the guys at the very top do well, workers and small businesses and communities can be left to fend for themselves."

“Nobody knows better than the people of the valley the consequences of that kind of philosophy,” he will say. “You’ve been through hell and back.”

“My plan may be challenged by the special interests, on the left and the right. But it represents a serious path forward -- toward fiscal discipline and economic growth,” Huntsman said to the crowd of 50 to 60 people, according to the campaign. “It also represents a very different vision for our country than the current occupier of the White House. The president believes that we can tax and spend and regulate our way to prosperity. We cannot. We must compete our way to prosperity.”

On controlling the nation’s debt, Huntsman noted that he supports many of Ryan's plan’s ideals paired with a balanced budget amendment.

“Our debt is immoral and it should be unconstitutional as well. But we cannot restore our nation’s economic strength by cuts alone,” he said.

Huntsman then outlined his approach to tax reform, simplifying the system by removing loopholes and temporary provisions. “Rather than tinker around the edges of a broken system, I’m going to drop a plan on the front steps of the Capitol that says, ‘We need to clean house.’ Get rid of all tax expenditures, all loopholes, all deductions, all subsidies. Use that to lower rates across the board. And do it on a revenue-neutral basis,” he said.

On individual taxpayer rates, Huntsman plans to remove all deductions and credits, lowering rates to eight, 14, and 23 percent.

He also plans to get rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which Huntsman says “is unfairly penalizing a growing number of families and small businesses.” Huntsman suggests that eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends will jumpstart investment in the economy by lowering the cost of capital.

As for corporate taxes, Huntsman proposes lowering rates from 35 to 25 percent. He also suggests a tax holiday for corporate profits earned overseas, which he says will make $400 billion and $600 billion available to companies to make capital investments.

Huntsman then moved to regulatory reform, calling attention to the National Labor Relations Board’s attempt to block a new Boeing plant in South Carolina. "If elected, I will immediately instruct the NLRB to stop pursuing this politically motivated attack on free enterprise, and if they fail to do so I will replace them,” he said.

Huntsman also plans to repeal the extensive set of financial industry regulations that comprise the Dodd-Frank Act.

Huntsman concluded the regulatory reform portion of his speech by calling for a repeal of Obamacare, as well as “the EPA’s serious regulatory overreach” and “the FDA’s ridiculous approval process that increases development costs and unnecessarily delays new products.”

On energy independence, Huntsman plans to utilize domestic energy sources “by expediting the approval process for safe, environmentally-sound projects -- including our oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska and appropriate Federal lands and supporting the Keystone Pipeline Project in cooperation with Canada.”

He would also call for the elimination of energy subsidies, making domestic energy sources such as natural gas and biofuels more viable.

On free trade, Huntsman said that previously established agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama would become some of his top priorities as president. He also called for discussions with India to end the United States’ bilateral free trade agreement with the nation, “strengthening our relationship with a friend who will prove to be critical to America’s success in the 21st century.”

Huntsman concluded his speech by emphasizing his made-in-America values. "It’s time for America to start building things again,” he said. “It’s time for America to start working again. It’s time for America to compete again. I believe with a new administration we can do just that.”